There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.

No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.